ALLEGED LIBEL AND SLANDER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 198, 30 November 1910, Page 5

ALLEGED LIBEL AND SLANDER

ARISING OUT OF AN ISLAND INCIDENT.

By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 29, 9 p.m. Sydney, November 29. As a sequel to his action against the Sydney Morning Herald in March last, Captain John Strachan has commenced an action against Dr. Irmer, the German Consul-General at Sydney, claiming £SOOO damaged for alleged libel and slander. The action is founded on the statement made by Dr. Irmer, and published in the Press prior to Strachan's case against the Herald, alleging that the German authorities desired to get hold of Strachan in order to recover a tine inflicted for recruiting natives in the German Islands, and also the cost of bringing back the natives that Strachan was declared to have taken from the island of Tobi. Strachan claims that these statements impute that he was guilty of kidnapping and carrying on an infamous- and dishonorable trade.

The statement reported to have been made by the paper referred to a voyage made by Strachan in the ketch Envy, charging Strachan with recruiting natives of Tobi Island under a promise of returning them to their homes, which promise, the article alleged, he failed to keep. Captain Strachan said he had taken the boys for a trip on the Envy of their own free will to get a knowledge of the world, and he had not kidnapped or recruited them.